Vertebrates
Mammals
Bat Species
Mountain Beaver
Pacific Water Shrew
Townsend’s Mole
Birds
Barn Owl
Barn Swallow
Great Blue Heron, fannini subspecies
Marbled Murrelet
American Goshawk, laingi subspecies
Short-eared Owl
Western Screech-Owl, kennicottii subspecies
Amphibians
Coastal Giant Salamander
Coastal Tailed Frog
Northern Red-legged Frog
Oregon Spotted Frog
Western Toad
Reptiles
Common Sharp-tailed Snake
Painted Turtle, Pacific Coast Population
Fish
Nooksack Dace
Salish Sucker
Invertebrates
Insects
Dun Skipper
Grappletail
Johnson’s Hairstreak
Molluscs
Olympia Oyster
Oregon Forestsnail
Plants
Non-Vascular
Poor pocket moss
Vascular
Phantom orchid
Streambank lupine
Tall bugbane
Vancouver Island beggarticks
Ecological Communities
Arbutus
Coastal Douglas-fir
Coastal Sand Ecosystems
Coastal Western Hemlock

A member of the family Ostreidae (“true oysters”), Olympia oyster is British Columbia’s only native oyster. Major population declines are believed to have taken place during a period of heavy harvest exploitation between the 1800’s and 1930. Small populations still exist in the Strait of Georgia and larger populations are locally common off Vancouver Island. This species also goes by the name “California” or “Western” oyster. More commonly it goes by the name ‘Rock” oyster. They are mainly found in the lower intertidal and shallow subtidal zones of saltwater lagoons and estuaries.

This is a species at risk. To find its current at-risk designation and listing info, visit the BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer. For direction on finding additional species recovery information, visit the Species and Ecological Communities Profiles Overview webpage.

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